A fourth official of Adams Produce Company has been charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a scheme to defraud the federal government of $481,000, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard D. Schwein, Jr., and IRS-Criminal Investigation Division Special Agent in Charge Veronica Hyman-Pillot.
Stanley Joel Butler II, a former purchasing agent for the company, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Butler has agreed to plead guilty to the charge and pay $481,000 in restitution along with co-conspirators in the case.
“In an attempt to address Adams Produce’s deteriorating financial situation, officers and employees of the company resorted to fraud. That fraud harmed Adams employees, customers, and U.S. taxpayers,” Vance said. “We are holding the perpetrators accountable for the crimes that were committed.”
Butler, along with David Andrew Kirkland, and Christopher Alan Pfahl, engaged in a scheme to create false records that reflected a higher purchasing cost for fruits and vegetables than Adams actually paid. These inflated costs were then presented to the government, which had agreed to pay a certain amount over Adams’ cost for produce.
Butler knowingly received the false purchase orders and used them to create the weekly pricing catalogs that he presented to the government Defense Supply Center, according to his plea agreement. As a result, Adams Produce fraudulently received about $481,000 from the government.
The conspiracy charge Butler faces carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
F.B.I.
